Knitting Tips and Tricks

I am tall. Tall enough that clothes in otherwise great stores are of very little use to me. Despite this fact, I wear a 9.5 shoe. So shoes have played a very important part in my fashion life. Need less to say I am one of the masny women obsesses with shoes.

It is interesting to me that the old shoes I pull out of my closet to wear always get the most positive comments. As if people are trying to chat me up to see where I got them and are sad to hear that they were purchased years before. I find that even now I have a few new pairs that I have never worn, but I know that in a few years everyone will love them.

I think it is the same for little bits of information. We all have little tidbits stuck in our heads and it takes just the right situation to share our facts with others.

Now, I'm not really in an official knitting group or club, but the women who work at Knit + Stitch in Bethesda and the women who were trying to get their x-mas presents completed in the shop over the last few weeks are the closest I've come to one. And this awesome and very open group has shared some great tips that were offered simply because they were paying attention to me while I was knitting and made relevant recommendations. And, I would like to share these tips with you.

First of all, kittything saw me making fingerless wristwarmers which I found in Last-Minute Knitted Gifts. I thought they were great, but looked kind of like weird tubes rather than a thoughtful handmade gift so she sent me to a great pattern at knitty.com called fetching. I have to say that I LOVE this pattern. I made it with some inexpensive variegated yarn and am now making it again in a great yarn called waterlily. In case you haven't seen me knit, I am a new knitter and I tend to be a TIGHT knitter. My knitting is pretty uniform, but it is very tight. Kittything saw me knit and told me a great tip:

TIP #1 - When casting on, hold a second needle along with the one you will be using to knit the first row. That way, it will be possible to knit the first row. It will also be uniform.

TIP #2 - Came from Anne at the yarn shop. She teaches a sock class that I may take in the new year. She said that my bind off was tight as well so she recommended that I use a larger needle to bind off. I have tried both of these tips and they are great.

As with any good piece of info, it is best shared. So I have been telling everyone the yarn shop about these tips. Well, Lyn Ermer who owns the Knit and Stitch = Bliss yarn shop, offered...

Tip #3 - Knit the row before bind off using a larger needle to avoid a tight bind off.

If these tips are useful to you, enjoy.

In the meantime I want to share one more thing. Over the Christmas holiday, I was up in the Lehigh Valley and I was taken to a yarn shop that was closed, but they let us in for a quick peek. It was called The Yarn Shop at Kraemer Textiles and they had some great yarns. They had a Sterling Yarns with silver fibers running through the yarn and some GREAT chunky yarns called Bear Creek.

Sorry no pictures. I hope that everyone who received a handmade gift from me takes pictures for me for my blog.

Well, that is all for now and maybe for the year.
Happy New Year!

Baby Season Comes To An End

Well, you know I've been knitting like crazy because I know about nine babies being born within a 60-day period. I believe the final babies have now been born. Our friends had their little boy on the 13th of November. His name is James Connor Sargent. He's huge and very handsome. I have also learned of a few clients of mine having babies after the fact so the total is a bit higher than 9, but I wasn't anticipating these arrivals. If you have a good easy and quick baby booty pattern for a boy, please send me an email.

Soon I will be able to focus on the holidays. Have a good one. I'm off to Dayton, Ohio later this week for a wedding. I get so much knitting done when I fly.

Happy Thanksgiving!

So much going on...

I have so much news. First, it was so great seeing Alexis. She is the coolest woman, mom, artist, friend - I could go on and on. We stayed right on 6th Street, which was party central. It was odd being in Austin for the "Texas Takedown" and not even knowing there was a game or even who was playing.

Stitch was fun. We met some very nice people. I also got a chance to see some of the original work from Craft Camp in person. I have a feeling she will have an Etsy site very soon. Everyone wanted to buy her personal purse, which she made. It was pretty interesting to see all the vendors and their various pricing.

I worked on some knitting while in line early for a free gift bag and on all my flights, but since I was working on Christmas presents, I'll hold off on the pictures until after the gifts are given.

There is some other big news to share. Another family baby has been born. Today around 5am. Her name is Elsie Rose Kenson and I can't wait to see pictures of her. Sounds like she may be another redhead, just like her mother, brother and cousin. She will soon be the recipient of some of my knitting. Some complete and some I should be working on now.

And finally, I completed my third baby blanket. I used the same pattern, but this time I used Patons Melody in Peacock and Fun' Games, which is a thinner yarn than what I had been using. I doubled up on the yarn using two strands as one. It was a lot harder to knit. I now understand the importance of using the right yarn and needle combination. I definitely should have been using larger needles. Oh well. This blanket is a lot thicker and perfect for winter.

I guess that is all the news for now.

One last picture. Alex took this picture of me shopping in SoCo. I love all of the Day of the Dead stuff they have for sale in Austin. I got a few things for next year's Halloween Party.

Final Notes for October

I wanted to say that the "other baby boy" I referred to was born yesterday on Halloween. His name is Anthony Michael Puglisi Jr. and he is very, very cute. He was born early so I am not ready with my knitting, but I'm working hard to catch up.

For those of you who know me, you know how much I love Halloween. I'm not sure if it's because my sister's birthday is October 30th and I was jealous that she always had Halloween themed birthday parties or what, but I was definitely raised in a family where we ALL dressed up and got really into the holiday. My favorite thing to see on Halloween blog sites are the pictures from the 70s of the kids dressed and ready to go trick-or-treating. I particularly like this one. Each year for Christmas I ask for a framed picture of my daughters in their Halloween costumes and I am developing a great collection. Here you can see me with my dead husband :)

Next week I am heading to Austin to meet my friend Alexis. She lives in New Orleans and has a great blogger site called Craft Camp. If you haven't already, you should check it out. She has a studio and tons of creative ideas. Can't wait to spend some time with her in Austin. If you live in Austin and know something that I should do while I"m there, please email.

Well, another October to rest and according the stores, it looks like it's time to buy Christmas stuff.

Being productive.

Well another baby (named Benjamin) was born to one of my clients and it looks like another baby boy will be arriving any minute. I am surrounded by pregnant women all due in the next few weeks so I'm doing my best to be productive. Here is my next completed gift project. It's the same pattern and yarn as the last baby blanket, but a different color. It's for a girl so go ahead and tell my why you think it should be pink.

Happy Halloween!

Emily Marie Kemmerer

At 12:12am Emily Marie made her debut. She is really cute and has lots of black hair so she is looking a bit like her Dad. The girls and I have a box of welcome gifts ready to go, but one more thing to add...

This is a pair of booties I made from a pattern that was sent to me by Kate when she sent me a bunch of online knitting sites. You can find it here. I decided on black and pink, but you could have fun with yarn and button choices.

Anticipation

My sister-in-law and her husband are spending a very long day in the hospital today. They're waiting for the birth of their daughter. It's their first kid and they are on edge, but the rest of us are filled with anticipation just waiting for the call to let us know of her arrival and to learn her name. My daughters just put together a package and I included the following baby blanket that I made from the Karabella Yarns pattern called Puffy Baby Blanket. I used an alternate yarn called Schoeller + Stahl Big Ball Color #01 and US Size 15 circular needles. This was my first time using circular needles and I love them.

Even though it has not yet been delivered, here is a picture of the baby blanket I made for this little girl. I sure hope she likes it!

Skipping the Small Stuff

It has always been my tendency. I'm attracted to the harder projects and I decide to go for it, often missing the smaller step lessons offered along the way. With lost wax casting, I chose a large ring with a rectangular stone inlay as my first project. I think I do this because I really don't like the look of many of the easy projects and don't want to own the resulting items.

With knitting, it was similar. I did not really want the little beginner shoulder bags or cell phone holders. It wasn't until I found this item on the Lion Brand Yarn Site that I really wanted to knit. So while I was in bed after foot surgery, I went online and ordered the pattern. While waiting for my delivery, I made a scarf with a cable stitch to prepare myself for cables, which I had never tried before. Here is the picture of my cable bag. I hope you like it.

If you decide to give this pattern a try, let me know and I will give you my changes. There are several mistakes in the pattern that Lion doesn't update, and I have a change I would offer to you as an option. The handles are attached using crochet, which is how I ended up at a yarn shop - asking for advice.

Rebirth

It has been a really long time since I put up the original House of Longgirl website which featured my jewelry designs. That was before kids. Now I have very little time for metalsmithing. Seems that pulling out chemicals, fire, sharp tools and scrap metal doesn't really fit into naptime. So I've taken up some new endeavors that are more condusive to my life as a working mother.

A few weeks ago I was in a yarn shop called Knit and Stitch = Bliss and I met a woman and we started talking about knitting. I told her that last year I made all of my family members winter hats using a Knifty Knitter. She called me a cheater. I liked her right away.

This woman sent me a ton of knitting blogs and told me to post pictures of all my latest projects with descriptions so either my readers or I could recreate them. Keep your eyes open for pictures to be posted later this week. Some I will have to delay until the gifts are given.

Anyway, I am getting into knitting right now, but hope to revive House of Longgirl as a more mixed media site. And I won't forget the Pez Collection.